Experts flock to SJM

THE Sydney Jewish Museum hosted a “cutting edge” international symposium on Jewish history, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust earlier this month.

Held in conjunction with the Department of Hebrew and Biblical Studies at the University of Sydney and the Goethe-Institute Sydney, the forum held on September 17-18 featured renowned speakers from Australia, Europe and the US.

Organiser Professor Konrad Kwiet, the museum’s resident historian and Pratt Foundation Professor of Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at the University of Sydney, said it was a “huge success”.

“It attracted a full house, it attracted quite a lively debate,” he said.

“The people who came, they were quite impressed. It was something that you could call cutting edge.”

Kwiet said the speakers – who included International Tracing Service head of research and education Dr Susanne Urban, New York University emeritus professor Bernd Hüppauf, Institute for the History of German Jews director Dr Beate Meyer and Goethe-Institute Sydney director Dr Arpad Sölter among other expert names – were world class.

Topics covered at the symposium ranged from historical examples of anti-Semitism to using Holocaust education as a tool against hate, to survivors in the Diaspora, to the legacy of Nazism on Germany.

Kwiet said it was particularly important at the present time to hold the symposium in a climate experiencing an “upsurge of anti-Semitism worldwide, from Bondi to Berlin”.

“It’s important to discuss scenes of history which now have particular contemporary relevance, in the view of the upsurge in anti-Semitism and racism,” he said.

He added: “It’s important for the Sydney Jewish Museum to run these exercises which demonstrate that we are not only a museum or a place of commemoration, but also a research institute.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff, who participated in the symposium, commended the program. “The symposium was relevant to the global political climate, while at the same time focusing on the darkest chapter of our history,” he said. “It provided pertinent insights into understanding key aspects of that seminal period.”

GARETH NARUNSKY

German Consul General Hans-Dieter Steinbach addresses the symposium. Photo: Noel Kessel